The world watched in shock as Vladimir Putin unleashed the most intense and destructive missile assault since the Ukraine war began, triggering NATO to scramble fighter jets in a rare show of emergency military readiness.
According to official sources, Russian forces launched a staggering 741 strikes, including 728 Iranian-designed Shahed kamikaze drones, seven Kh-101/Iskander-K cruise missiles, and six Kinzhal hypersonic missiles, some of the deadliest in Moscow’s arsenal.
The western Ukrainian cities of Lutsk and Ternopil bore the brunt of the attack, with Kyiv rocked by fireballs and warehouses set ablaze. Even Zhytomyr came under fire from hypersonic missiles as Russia pushed its aerial war into terrifying new territory. The blitz came shortly after Donald Trump pledged fresh missile defence supplies to Ukraine and reaffirmed his hardline stance on Putin.
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“We get a lot of bull**** thrown at us by Putin,” Trump said. “He’s very nice all the time but it turns out to be meaningless.”
In a chilling revelation from a 2024 fundraiser, Trump claimed he once threatened to bomb Moscow to prevent a Russian invasion of Ukraine.
“I said, ‘If you go into Ukraine, I’m going to bomb the sh*t out of Moscow.’”
While Trump’s words echo across Washington, NATO forces sprang into action. Polish and Western allied aircraft were scrambled as Putin’s forces approached NATO’s eastern flank. Poland’s armed forces raised readiness to its peak:
“All available forces and resources were activated,” said Warsaw’s military command. “Duty fighters were scrambled, air defence and radar systems reached the highest alert level.”
Ukraine’s air defence successfully neutralized 296 drones and all seven cruise missiles, with 303 threats destroyed and others misfiring or lost to electronic warfare, highlighting Ukraine’s growing technical resilience.
In Lutsk, Mayor Ihor Polishchuk called the strike the “worst enemy attack” the city had endured, but thanked the heavens there were no confirmed deaths at that point. Fires raged through the city as civilians took shelter and emergency crews responded.
On the other side, Ukraine retaliated with limited strikes deep into Russian territory, causing temporary shutdowns at Moscow’s Sheremetyevo and Vnukovo airports. Explosions were also reported near Zelenograd and Tula, and in Kursk, where two women were injured and three people reportedly died, including a five-year-old boy who shielded his mother, according to Russian sources, which remain unverified.
Russian officials condemned the counter-attacks, with Governor Alexander Khinshtein calling it a “vile, inhumane strike” on civilians.
“The enemy deliberately struck a place where civilians were. Late in the evening, on a holiday,” he claimed.
As Russia continues to escalate and NATO edges closer to direct confrontation, global fears of the Ukraine conflict expanding beyond its borders are growing by the hour.
